Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-31-Speech-4-097"
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"en.20010531.3.4-097"2
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".
The federalists’ anger over the Treaty of Nice, which is scrupulously echoed in the report by Mr Méndez de Vigo and Mr Seguro, is, initially, surprising because, far from being a change in direction, far from initiating a fundamental reform of the European integration process which would facilitate the harmonious reunification of our continent, the Treaty of Nice actually uses enlargement as a new excuse and incitement to introduce more supranationality, more centralisation and more of the super-State. The Treaty of Nice therefore fits in perfectly well with the ideological approach of its predecessors. It strengthens the supranational institutions and creates new elements of supranationality such as the European political parties or the uniform regulations applying to MEPs. For the first time it lays down in the Treaties the objective of integration, applying it not only at Community level but also, and there is nothing to stop this ideology, at intergovernmental level too.
Why, then, is there such an outcry, within this old hotbed of federalism, the European Parliament, against a Treaty which boldly displays the predominant federalist philosophy? Could it be, as Georges Berthu has given us to understand, that with Nice we find ourselves confronted with the expression of a new phase of federalism, which is an even more radical departure from the ‘state’ component, in favour of the component consisting of numbers, of population size? Does this mean, in particular the reweighting of votes within the Council and the Commission, which is closely linked to population levels, and the concept of the demographic verification clause, that the European institutions are being redesigned in such a way as to ensure that the concepts of equilibrium and equality will be obliterated, and their place taken by the domination of those states or groups of states which have the largest populations? If this is true, then we would be heading towards a Europe no longer consisting of equal, and equally respected, states, but a Europe consisting of unequal peoples.
If we are to halt this dangerous trend, calling on the old federalism to combat the new federalism is certainly not the right way to go about it. In order to escape the antidemocratic trends that threaten it, we must rethink European integration, basing it on respect for national democracies."@en1
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